“Being a beginner, I decided beforehand not to even attempt to make them turn out perfectly. In return, this, not pursuing perfectness gave me a joy of accepting everything as a great gift at the very moment of opening the kiln’s door.” – Ceramic Artist Yoshitomo Nara.

Ha, I am really getting somewhere with my cushion-for-that-one-chair from this pattern. And how I enjoy my first attempt at crocheting! Far from perfect but as I stated before: I do not suffer from perfectionism and I am thoroughly enjoying myself.

And those blocked Granny Squares look so pretty, especially on a dreary,rainy day;0) The hard part comes after this: putting it all together. I have a question for the experienced crocheter : is the single crochet the best method?

‘The sea is like a strange spirit, forever changing its form; it is a heavy fluid, it is mist, hanging over sea and land, it is clouds, high over Earth, it is ice, it is the snowflake. It is two gases, the familiar H2O of the school laboratory.’ -from ‘ The Sea and its Rivers’ by Alida Malkus (published 1956)

What does this quote have to do with crocheting, you wonder? I come to that in a minute.

Well, I never liked crocheting, a bit of a clumsy affair with an impossible hook and yarn. But I kept eyeing those nice granny squares, I see everywhere. And then I stumbled on this gorgeous pattern, exactly right for ‘that-chair-in-that-one-bedroom’. There was nothing else to it: study the Youtube instruction videos on crocheting, select yarn and a pretty basket and get to it. And I must say….it is becoming already a serious addiction and every square looks a little neater;0)

My sincere apologies to all you crochet lovers out there: you were right!

The book is a little gem, discarded by a local high school. I found it in a thrift store and bought it for its pretty cover. But it is an adventure to read. Alida Malkus has such a vivid and poetic way of writing and addressing her pupils directly, so you ‘travel’ with her down the big ocean currents, to deep depths and watch al the sea creatures. I miss the sea, so this is lovely. This is how textbooks should be! And it looks so pretty in my cozy basket ;0)